You missed the idiocy of HiThere on how we have stupid minds while he is a kung fu master because he can draw a bunch of triangles.

Other then that, not much

HiThere as in Happeh? Is that still going on? From what I understood, he generally does that for a few months at any given forum and moves on.

Originally Posted by CoffeeFan

Oh, and I'm glad you got to compete in a sumo tournament then travel all around Europe. What were your thoughts of training for Sumo?

Thanks mate. That's actually a really good question. Honestly, Sumo helped my judo but not in the way I expected. Initially I'd thought that with there being so many kimarite it would help me with my throwing techniques, but I found that actually competing in Sumo was far different to training for it in that throws became largely irrelevant in the actual bouts, and posture, balance, and aggression were the real key.

Realistically, the three things I've taken from Sumo and intend to keep:
1. Shiko - awesome for your balance and strength
2. Tsugiashi - you do it in Judo anyway, but not with the same degree of focus and intensity that you do in Sumo. I've become much more aware of how important your weight distribution, and placement of your feet actually is, and I thought I'd understood it before
3. An increase in aggresion when grappling. I've been told so many times when rolling that defending is losing, but have always found it hard to dictate the pace. I always play too softly softly, and try to capitalise on any mistake my opponent makes rather than attacking from the outset. In sumo, since the average bout only goes for like 5 seconds, the point was really driven home that you have to set the pace, and control it, because the better players won't make a mistake for you to capitalise on.

Originally Posted by CodosDePiedra

It seems weird to put the world sumo championships in Estonia.

A famous Professional Sumo name Baruto came from Estonia, and generally they are quite successful as a nation in Amateur Sumo.

Next year, the world championships are in Egypt, I believe.

Originally Posted by Rivington

It works in the buffet line.

Well played, sir. Well played.

Anyway, I haven't met with the rest of the team since I returned to Australia, so I don't have any video footage or many pictures yet, but here's a couple. I'll post more when I get them.

The Bull, which the town of Rakvere got it's name from wearing it's mawashi